Honestly, before seeing this girl, Tenjo Hikari never expected to see her appear.
"Serena," one of Yuzu's doppelgängers in the original "Yu-Gi-Oh! A5," the "heroine" of the Fusion Dimension, representing the female of the "moon."
In the original work, she is a straightforward and quite "bold" female duelist.
But of course, her personality isn't innate; it's mostly the result of being "imprisoned" by Akaba Leo for three years.
The thing that impressed Tenjo Hikari the most about her was her long list of voice lines related to "Fusion" in the game "Duel Links." Almost every card with Polymerization's name in the game has her special dubbing; she truly lives up to the name of the "Fusion Dimension" heroine.
In the Dueling Arena, Serena looked at her hand, unable to think of a solution, and had no choice but to end her turn.
"Hi~~ Then it's my turn~~" Dark Magician Girl waved to the audience as she took her move.
The advantage was clearly hers; even if Serena didn't want to give up, she ultimately didn't have Judai's ability to fill the deck with counter cards and have a miracle draw exactly when needed, and was left with no choice but to admit defeat.
"Damn it!" Serena was directly attacked by Dark Magician Girl and lost the duel, angrily pounding the ground with her hand.
"Wow, I'm so envious, being directly attacked by Dark Magician Girl—" says a perverted student.
"Oh oh! Everyone, Dark Magician Girl's direct attack has won the victory! The win belongs to Dark Magician Girl!" Marufuji Shou excitedly spoke into the microphone, praising, "Let's cheer for Dark Magician Girl!"
"Oh!!"
A group of students, both male and female, couldn't help but cheer.
It's really scary.
The popularity of Dark Magician Girl is just too high, isn't it?
"Little sister, are you hurt?" After responding to her fans, Dark Magician Girl slung her Magic Staff over her back, intending to approach and ask.
But before she could step forward, a large group of students in purple uniforms suddenly rushed forward, surrounding Serena, blocking her from view.
Among them were a few students, who took Serena by the hand, seemingly trying to drag her away.
"Miss Serena, how could you be here!"
"Come with us quickly, the professor has been looking for you!"
"Let go of me!!" Serena struggled, twisting her body.
"Hey, what are you doing!" Before anyone else could react, before Tenjo Hikari could even speak, before Professor Cronos could process the situation, someone suddenly burst out, pointing at the students in purple uniforms and angrily said, "How can you treat a young girl like this!?"
"Fubuki?" "Brother?"
Marufuji Ryo and Tenjouin Asuka looked dumbfounded as Tenjouin Fubuki rushed out.
"Huh? Is this the kind of setting Senior Fubuki is in?" Mitsuzawa Daichi suddenly found himself bewildered.
Previously, when he was defeated by the Amazoness Spirit, Fubuki approached him, persuading him to steal the keys from others to challenge the female spirit. When his head was hot, he acknowledged the suggestion, but later, when he calmed down, he felt it was utterly shameless.
The one who made such a suggestion, Tenjouin Fubuki, was utterly unreliable!
Today...so, Senior Fubuki is actually a brave and righteous man...
"You guys, can't you see this lovely girl doesn't want to go with you?"
Tenjouin Fubuki pulled out a guitar from who knows where, gently plucked the strings as if singing, and softly said, "One should be gentle to girls!"
"Ahem... And besides, she doesn't seem to be from the high school department, does she?" Tenjouin Asuka came over, elbowing her brother's waist before his erratic behavior became more evident, "She's a middle school student, right? It should be the teachers who take her back."
Indeed.
Tenjo Hikari stood aside, raising his head again to discern.
Serena looked quite petite, probably only in the second year of middle school?
"Right, I think it's wrong to force her that way!" Dark Magician Girl joined in the fun, gleefully raising her Magic Staff.
With her speaking out, some students who usually feared the "Integration Department lunatics" suddenly mustered up the courage—or perhaps they were energized by her: "That's right, that's right, you guys shouldn't bully kids!"
"And it's a little girl, too!"
"Tsk..." A few students from the Integration Department exchanged a few impatient glances.
But even so, they didn't want to let go, or relent at all.
"Enough! What is this?!" At this moment, Tenjo Hikari strode directly over from the crowd.
"I thought you'd have made some progress after that, but now you're even doing something like trying to kidnap a little girl?!"
"How disgraceful do you want to make the Fusion, the Academy, and the Duelists? Let go of her, immediately!"
Tenjo Hikari shouted several times.
"Te—Tenjo Hikari..." The leader, initially tough while arguing with a few hot-headed students, deflated the moment he saw Tenjo Hikari striding over, and instinctively shrunk his head.
"Ha, that guy seems to get shorter when he sees Tenjo." Watching this, Manjome, who had invited Tenjo Hikari to spend the festival together earlier, couldn't help but laugh and shake his head, "In terms of presence, he just loses to Tenjo; he'll probably never win against him in this lifetime."
The leader's face showed a mix of embarrassment and anger. He'd heard Manjome's words but didn't have the guts to retort.
The Fusion Army's current record against Tenjo Hikari, whether internal or external, conventional or unconventional, had never let them gain even a little advantage.
Not losing miserably was already good enough!
Even the Minister wasn't a match for Tenjo Hikari; under such circumstances, where would he get such an idea?
"Hmph, Tenjo Hikari, don't think you can always win just because you've won before. Besides, this has nothing to do with you, since you're no longer part of the Inte... Integration Department!"
"Nonsense, seeing you who claim to be Fusion Duelists bullying a little girl here makes it my business!"
"Ugh—" It was as if he had been punched, leaving him speechless.
Every movement, every word from Tenjo Hikari seemed like a sharp blade, reducing him several notches.
Seeing this, a masked purple-uniformed student beside him had no choice but to sigh, "Minister Tenjo, this Miss Serena is the daughter of our Integration Department's responsibility teacher, Professor Akuma. It has nothing to do with you!"
They slowly cleared the way, allowing all students to see Serena.
Eh?!
Almost everyone was taken aback at these words.
"That bald head... cough cough..."
"Professor Akuma is married?!"
"Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh? He has such a cute daughter?!" Tenjouin Fubuki was dumbfounded.
Even... even Tenjo Hikari was stunned.
No way—not this world's Akaba Leo claiming Serena as his daughter??
Isn't that absurd?!
He thought to himself, but his actions and words didn't stop: "So what! Even if she's Professor Akuma's daughter, so what! That doesn't justify you restraining a girl!"
He pointed at Serena, speaking more firmly: "Dragged forcibly, leaving red marks on Serena's arms; what right do you have to convince anyone with that!
At least, let Serena choose for herself!"
"Hmph, there's no need to ask, she'd obviously—" The Fusion Army leader confidently began to speak.
"Ah! You're that Ultimate Fusion Duelist!" Seeing Tenjo Hikari from the scattering students, Serena immediately recalled the scene she saw in the lab earlier, eagerly asked, "Can I learn Fusion from you?!"
Silence—
Dead silence.
The Fusion Army students could vaguely hear faint snickers.
"Hahaha," it was Manjome who first started laughing, "Seems like even the professor's daughter doesn't believe in his teachings!"
"Hahahahahaha!" Then, there was thunderous laughter.